


After the Cameras Stop

by Iamacarrot



Series: 4th Wall Breaks [1]
Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018)
Genre: 4th wall break, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, For other fandoms, Goodbye 4th Wall, I've had this idea for a whole two years now, Now I shall write it for this fandom, Self-Acceptance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-29
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-10-19 00:38:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17591456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iamacarrot/pseuds/Iamacarrot
Summary: Have you ever wondered what our beloved characters do after the cameras stop rolling?





	After the Cameras Stop

"And... CUT! That's a wrap!"

Mikey cheered, pulling out of the family hug, and racing out of the set in which his home was represented. The producers and background members chuckled lightly, watching Mikey hop onto a counter. Today's episode had been  _more_ than energetic, and Mikey was ready to finally plop down and rest.

"Hold on there, Michael. We still have half a day left." Donnie chuckled, following after his baby brother and pulling the younger off of the counter.

"No! I wanna sleep!" Mikey whined, going limp in Donnie's arms.

"I get that, but you still have things to work on." Donnie replied, a slight bit of scolding in his voice. "Your homework log has more than a few empty boxes, and I've been wondering about why that is."

"Ooooooh. Busted!" Leo snickered.

"Oh! That! Well, uhh... y'know, I've just been so busy with learning the scripts, and getting some feedback from the producers, that I haven't had that much free time!" Mikey chimed, knowing very well that his brothers weren't believing a word of what he was saying.

And for good reason. Mikey had seen no obvious reason in doing homework that would never benefit him in the future. Unless the producers decided to have him use his newfound intelligence in a new episode, but even  _then_ , Mikey was sure that he wouldn't need to know that the square root of 2,500 is 50. Why would he?

"Well, since that's the case, when we get home, I want you to write a five page essay, in  _Kanji_ , explaining the concept of imaginary numbers, and how they affect the concept of mathematics in square roots." Donnie instructed.

"But-"

"You heard him, Mike." Leo chuckled.

"That isn't fair! We just finished shooting one of the  _craziest_ episodes ever, and you tell me to start thinking about imaginary numbers, right when my brain is fried like an egg on a California sidewalk?!" Mikey complained.

"Nice analogy." Raph complimented.

"Thank you. But this still isn't fair." Mikey huffed.

"Would you rather get down and do 200 push ups?" Leo asked.

"No!" Mikey shouted. "I'd rather do 250!"

Donnie groaned, but let Mikey down, watching as the younger took the perfect position, and started to do the strenuous work out. Leo hummed in surprise. Mikey had become much better in terms of speed and strength, and had most obviously been training on his own time. Impressive, yes. Good excuse, no.

"27! 28! 29! 30!" Mikey chanted.

"Square root of 25."

"5! 6! 7! Wait... Donnie!" Mikey whined, frowning at his brothers' cackles of glee. "I hate you,  _so much_ right now."

"No you don't. Now go on. You were at 33." Donnie instructed.

Michelangelo rolled his eyes, but did as told, whining and pouting every time his brothers shouted out a random square root, leading Mikey to get off track of how many push ups he'd done. The Box Turtle managed to finish after around thirty minutes- his brothers' little joke having lasted for a majority of the time -and Mikey was more than out of breath afterwards.

"Wow, Mikey. Sounds like someone needs to do some more upper body work." Leo teased.

"Can we just go home?" Mikey huffed.

"Yeah, come on, boys." Raph chimed, leading his brothers out of the studio.

Unlike one would believe, the boys had managed to get a secondary living arrangement to use during the winter. It was a beautiful condo, and it had everything that they'd needed, give or take a few unnecessary items they'd requested. The brothers could not be any happier with their lives, and always enjoyed every moment they spent together.

"You're not gonna go to the den and cry, are you?" Leo inquired, looking to Mikey, who was begrudgingly looking out of the window of the personal limo that the boys had been gifted.

"No." came Mikey's simple reply.

"Mikey, you know we were just joking around. No need to be so sensitive, bud." Raph assured, patting Mikey's head.

The youngest turtle said nothing, arms crossed and expression set in an angry glare. Leo cast a look to Donnie, and the two smirk, Leo nodding, as if giving his twin permission to do what they were both thinking.

"Michael, if you don't stop pouting, I'm going to have to take drastic measures." Donnie warned playfully.

"Pfft. Like  _what?"_   Mikey replied.

"Well, he can't tell you! Otherwise, you'll know what to do to stop it!" Leo remarked.

"I'm sure it's not going to make me feel any better. You guys were acting like big beef jerkies!" Mikey scoffed.

"Whoa. Language, bud." Raph chuckled.

With no response, Donatello eased closer, opening his arms, and leaning in. Mikey didn't notice at first, but, when he did, he found that it was too late. Donnie pulled Mikey close, nuzzling his beak against Mikey's neck, and blowing a loud raspberry.

"NO! No! Stop it! That tickles! That tickles too much! You win! You win! You're gonna make me pee!" Mikey squealed, giggling as his assault had ceased. "Okay. I'm not mad anymore."

"Good. Now you know what to look for when you're acting like a little baby." Raph hummed.

"Every time?!" Mikey gasped.

"No. Not every time. But you never know when we'll use what." Donnie assured.

"Boys, we have arrived." the limo driver announced, letting the brothers out.

"Thank you, Mr. Davis!" Mikey chimed, handing a twenty dollar bill to the limo driver.

"Dear child, there is no need to hand me money every time I drive you somewhere." Mr. Davis assured, handing the bill back to Mikey.

"But I want you to have it! You're such a safe driver!" Mikey replied.

"Michael, respect his wishes." Donnie chided lightly.

"It's no trouble, Donatello. I find nothing wrong with the generosity." Mr. Davis assured, saying his goodbyes before driving off.

"I wanna be nice." Mikey muttered, crawling onto Donnie's back.

"I know, but you have to realize the difference between- hey Bolt -too much, and just enough niceness." Leo explained.

"There's such a thing as too much niceness???" Mikey gasped.

Raph, Donnie, and Leo chuckled, quickly making their way to the shared room. Mikey retrieved the key from Donnie's battle shell, hopping onto a nearby couch when the brothers walked into the room.

"It's so nice to be home." Leo sighed, immediately shedding his gear and shorts before sliding into the self kept hot tub the boys had been gifted. "To be loved, is to be coddled."

"Yet another thing you shouldn't say in front of Mikey." Donnie muttered, sitting next to Mikey, and starting to knead at a few visible knots on Mikey's lower neck.

"OW!" Mikey whimpered, shifting a bit.

"Sorry, Mike." Donnie apologized, letting up on his kneading just a bit. "Are these two...  _new?_ I could have sworn that you only had  _three_ last week, and now you have five!"

"I don't know! They just  _hurt!"_   Mikey huffed.

"Want me to numb it?" Donnie offered.

"Not really. I don't want anything to touch them. Won't they just go down on their own?" Mikey asked.

Donnie could hear the pain in his baby brother's voice. This was one of the consequences of being in a show such as theirs. So much movement and mark mistakes could really do a  _lot_ of damage to  _anyone_ , animated or no. With the boys being turtles, this meant that they had a higher chance of breaking their necks, were they to land the wrong way during a run through of an episode. Considering how their carapaces were literally hard enough to cause blunt force trauma to the spinal cord upon impact to an even harder surface to the front of the neck, put another horrific aspect into the mix.

"It scares me, sometimes." Donnie sighed.

And his brothers knew exactly what he was talking about.

This wasn't the first time one of them had brought the topic up.

"I know what you mean. Our job is dangerous, but you can't let what could happen get in the way of what we're supposed to do." Raph replied, preparing a sandwich for himself.

"That's the point, though." Leo muttered, obviously irked. "With so many risks, we're pretty much putting our lives on the line, just for the entertainment of other people."

"Leon, don't-"

"What do you think will happen to us when they reboot the show again?" Mikey asked softly.

Everyone silenced, unsure of how to answer the question that most likely plagued almost every actor in any show.

"Do you think people will remember us? Will we have to go to that gated community where our other selves are?" Mikey continued. "I just feel so  _guilty_. Knowing that we're taking the place of other versions that were loved by so many. You remember all of the backlash we got when our show started. Will that affect whether or not... whether or not our concept will exist after we're gone?"

"I'm... afraid I don't follow, Michael." Donnie replied, holding Mikey in his lap.

"Will people ever want the TMNT after we're done with? Or will we have made everyone so upset with our arrival, that they won't want anymore attempts at making us... recent?" Mikey clarified.

"...I-"

"Why does it matter?" Leo huffed. "There are so many fans who love us for who we are! Sure, there are gonna be haters, but haters are what make a show! They keep our fans on our side! Besides, you remember what Donnie said. Humans don't like change. I'm sure there were  _plenty_ of humans who didn't like the previous versions of us!"

"But, they were so popular..." Mikey whispered.

"Exactly. Just wait. There are plenty of watchers who will stay with us until... well... until Series Finale! Which will most likely be a  _long time_ from now." Leo assured.

Mikey smiled lightly, cherishing the gentle pat on the head he'd received from Donnie.

"Yeah. I guess you have a point. It's still weird, though. Knowing that we're just... amalgamations..." Mikey mused, looking at his arms and hands. "That we were born, but not."

"Urgh...  _please_ don't go there." Leo groaned, making his brothers laugh.

"I'm glad that's out of the way. That gives us time to talk about more...  _pressing,_ matters." Raph announced. "Who's taking the first shower?"

"BEAK PEAK CALLS FIRST SHOWER!" Mikey screamed.

Raph, Donnie, and Mikey all placed a finger on their beaks immediately, leaving Leo to sit in stunned silence. Once it dawned on him, the Slider whined, but moved to get out of the hot tub.

"Don't use all of the shell cleaner this time!" Mikey shouted.

"BLEH!" Leo shouted back.

"You know he's going to, just to make you mad." Raph commented.

"Yeah, I know. Which is why I filled the bottle with molasses." Mikey replied.

. . .

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU, MICHELANGELO!"

Mikey smirked devilishly.

**Author's Note:**

> Do you think cartoon character reboots have mid-series crises?


End file.
